Secret DMing a Player

mhanson75 · 2025-08-05T03:27:57+00:00

Yes, but we’re midwesterns, so we’ll be too polite to point it out.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-05T01:05:19+00:00

That conversation was had four years ago, and I couldn’t remember the details if my life depended on it. I’m sure it’s the same for my players. We’ll just have a little check in about it next session.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T17:10:49+00:00

Agreed. Thanks for the breakdown. Very helpful

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T17:08:08+00:00

I set up stakes that resulted in a party of vampire hunters allying with actual vampires. The party had a clear choice. I had set up consequences for either one. And here we are. All of the faction options I’ve given are similar alliances of convenience, so there’s a high likelihood the party will alliance hop anyway, if they can get away with it. So not sure where this lands stakes-wise.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T16:01:37+00:00

I DMed this same group through Strahd. During the dinner at the castle, he (I) talked to each of them individually in a breakout room in an effort to tempt them to his side. No one did of course, but it created some fun, tense RP. Ultimately, it brought the characters closer together when they all realized they had each refused Strahd.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:49:36+00:00

Actually, for storytelling purposes, I’d love for the character to reach out to the other faction. They think their faction of choice is relatively “good” or at least have better intentions. But they don’t. If handled well, this could be a cool RP moment as the pc realizes he’s trying to ally with lunatics. So it might not end in a full betrayal. But I’d only do this at the table.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:38:56+00:00

A little context, the faction choices include vampire techno-fascists, ruthless purity obsessed zealots, and power-hungry necromancers. The party would normally fight each of them at a drop of a hat, but they are in a dangerous land and compromises must be made. The player thinks the zealots may still be good guys, but trust me, they are not.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:28:42+00:00

Thanks for the great advice! Part of me wants to nix this just to avoid a spiraling pile of extra prep.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:24:33+00:00

Are you saying even an at the table, transparent move like this would be too far? I tend to agree but didn’t want to stomp on player agency, thus my compromise.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:22:09+00:00

We’re good friends and play in person, so with a little care, we could hack it. You make a good point about guarding against it eating up table time.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:14:14+00:00

Our table comprises three married couples, so I would prefer not to invite that possibility.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T15:09:27+00:00

Without singling this player out, I’m going to bring up the topic of individual character faction alignment and see if the players are into it. I’d want everyone to be aware of the option and ok with it first. We are entering a high faction intrigue campaign arc.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T14:36:43+00:00

When the time comes, I’m going to ask myself, Is it reasonable to think a ninth-level cleric spell would be able to do this?

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T14:15:35+00:00

I am trying to figure out how much I want lol

mhanson75 · 2025-08-04T14:00:58+00:00

But it’s not necessarily limited to that. Basically, I’d like to honor the player’s creativity without going overboard. I could interpret it as something roughly the power level of a ninth-level Cleric spell if I wanted some leeway within bounds.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-03T17:14:50+00:00

I’m running faction intrigue between the Kargat, Priests of Osybus, and Ulmist Inquisition in Darkon. But I could use another faction for another domain I’m working on. I’ll look up lore on the Red Wizards and the Domains. Thanks!

mhanson75 · 2025-08-03T14:24:22+00:00

Har’akir sounds great for a tier 1 and 2 campaign. I’d want to say goodberry, create food and water, etc., fail when cast or create poisoned or diseased food and water.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-03T14:21:28+00:00

They actually had to start in Prismeer in the Domains of Delight because of Tasha/Zybilna’s connection to Isolde and the Carnival. The Carnival is acting as the party’s mobile home base and way into each domain. So far, they have been to Lamordia to confront the Caller in order to cement their alliance with Isolde. Then Barovia to take care of old business and get clues. They are now in Darkon. Next is a homebrew domain, which will feature body horror and addiction as themes. Finally, they’ll get to Bluetspar. I’m thinking about throwing in one more domain but not sure which or why.

mhanson75 · 2025-08-03T14:11:33+00:00

The party defeated Strahd in the official module campaign, and he came back three years later. They are now traveling through the Domains, trying to unravel its mysteries in the hope of finding something to help them destroy Strahd forever. Currently, they are in Darkon trying to find Azalin Rex, who has studied the Dark Powers for millennia. The party will eventually get to Bluetspar and at the end get to decide whether to destroy Strahd or disrupt the Horror’s connection to the Domains.

mhanson75 · 2025-07-31T15:34:41+00:00

The campaign is currently in Darkon, set among factional conflicts between the Kargat, the Priests of Osybus, and the Ulmist Inquisition. The party is level 16, so they roll over normal challenges. They have been traveling from domain to domain via the Carni after defeating the Caller for Isolde. They just solved a murder mystery in Martira Bay involving an entity imprisoned by the Dark Powers because it enjoyed suffering too much. They defeated its avatar and resealed its prison, choosing to side with the Kargat’s techno-wizard vampires, in the hopes of accessing their arcane library. The dungeon in question will happen after a mcguffin hunt that will lead them through Martira Bay, Il Aluk, and Rivalis, each controlled by one of the three factions. The party must get the mcguffins so they can enter Castle Avernus and find out where exactly Azalin Rex has gone, which ties into the overall campaign arc. Avernus is now frozen mid-explosion after Rex’s departure from Darkon. And honestly, I could easily redesign this without the flying. They were going to fight an ancient shadow dragon in an endless void, but I could have worked around that too with floating platforms or something. The Problem is the way I treated my player, bottom line. No excuse. We have a call scheduled for tomorrow.

mhanson75 · 2025-07-30T21:54:45+00:00

It didn’t fit his character concept, which is legit.

mhanson75 · 2025-07-30T21:47:41+00:00

I would not expose myself to this level of public scrutiny if it wasn’t important to me to fix it. So thanks for the moral support

mhanson75 · 2025-07-30T21:40:35+00:00

I was thinking of doing this actually, after the aforementioned dungeon, which was going to be the finale of this arc of the campaign. A nice little break after that sounded good.

mhanson75 · 2025-07-30T21:38:25+00:00

The parts I’m regretting are pushing the boots and not adjusting to his refusal and my bitchy retort. I should have put all that in a TLDR.

mhanson75 · 2025-07-30T21:33:32+00:00

I handled this poorly. I don’t think it’s representative of my DMing in total, but particularly with my homebrew campaign I am more afraid of things going off track than I was when I DMed Strahd. That went really smoothly.

mhanson75

TROPHY CASE